Sleepless in Seattle
Sleepless in Seattle is a 1993 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, from a screenplay written by Jeff Arch, David S. Ward and Ephron. Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the film follows a journalist who becomes enamored with a widowed architect after his young son calls in to a talk radio program requesting a new wife for his grieving father. In addition to Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, and Rob Reiner, the film also features Rosie O'Donnell, Gaby Hoffmann, Victor Garber, Rita Wilson, Barbara Garrick, and Carey Lowell.
Inspired by director Leo McCarey's An Affair to Remember, which was a same-script remake of McCarey's Love Affair, Sleepless in Seattle was conceived as a romantic drama by Jeff Arch in 1989. Several studios rejected his script, deterred by the idea that its main couple does not meet for nearly the entire film. Ward and Ephron were hired for script revisions, with Ephron tapped to direct. Although both Hanks and Ryan had been favored for the lead roles from the beginning, several other actors expressed interest in both parts. The film was shot mostly in Seattle during the summer of 1992. Several of its pivotal scenes were filmed on a former naval base due to the city's lack of sound stages, including a recreation of the Empire State Building's observation deck when the New York skyscraper was not available.
Sleepless in Seattle was released by TriStar Pictures on June 25, 1993, to positive reviews, receiving praise for Ephron's writing and direction, as well as Hanks and Ryan's performances. The film received 2 nominations at the 66th Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Song. Despite competition from several blockbusters released around that same summer, the film was a surprise commercial success, earning $17 million during its opening weekend, and ultimately grossing over $227.9 million worldwide against a $21 million budget. It was one of the highest-grossing films of 1993, and remains one of the most successful romantic comedies in box-office history. Its success extended to the home video market: it was the top rental of 1994 in the United States. The soundtrack was also successful, peaking at number one on the Billboard 200.
Several critics and media publications agree that Sleepless in Seattle is one of the greatest romantic comedy films of all time. The film is also credited with establishing Ephron as a celebrated romantic comedy filmmaker.
Plot
Sam Baldwin, a recently widowed Chicago architect, moves to Seattle with his eight-year-old son Jonah, to start a new life. A year later on Christmas Eve, Jonah calls in to a nationally syndicated radio talk show and persuades a reluctant Sam to go on the air to talk about how much he misses his wife, Maggie, and how he knew she was the one for him when he first took her hand. Thousands of women from around the country hear the program and, touched by the story, write to Sam.One listener is Annie Reed, a Baltimore Sun reporter. She is engaged to Walter, but feels something is missing from their relationship. After watching An Affair to Remember, Annie writes Sam a letter suggesting they meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day. She decides against mailing it, but her friend and editor, Becky, mails it for her, and later agrees to send Annie to Seattle on a related story assignment after she has done some research on Sam via a detective agency. She also coins the term "widowered" in a conversation with co-workers.
Sam begins dating a co-worker, Victoria, whom Jonah vehemently dislikes. When Jonah reads Annie's letter, he instinctively feels that she could 'be the one' but is unable to convince Sam to meet her in New York on Valentine's. Jonah's friend Jessica, whose mother is a travel agent, urges him to reply to Annie, agreeing to the meeting.
While dropping Victoria off at the airport, Sam glimpses Annie exiting her plane and is mesmerized by her, though unaware of who she is. Later, Annie secretly watches Sam and Jonah playing on the beach together. The next day she goes to Sam's houseboat. From across the street she sees his sister Suzy, and assumes she is his girlfriend. A passing vehicle nearly hits Annie and honks at her. Sam recognizes her from the airport and says, "hello." Annie also says "hello" before quickly leaving. After returning to Baltimore, Annie goes to New York to meet Walter for Valentine's Day, trying to convince herself the trip was a mistake.
With Jessica's help, Jonah books a flight to New York and goes to the Empire State Building to find Annie. When Sam discovers him missing, he cancels his date, then gets Jessica to tell him where he is. He follows him to New York and finds him on the observation deck. Meanwhile, Annie sees the skyscraper from where she and Walter are dining. She confesses her doubts to him, tells him the story of all that has happened since hearing the Christmas broadcast and they amicably end their engagement. Annie rushes to the Empire State Building and arrives on the observation deck just moments after Sam and Jonah have gone down in the elevator.
Annie discovers Jonah's backpack. When Sam and Jonah return to retrieve it, Sam recognizes Annie again. After everyone introduces themselves, Annie takes Sam's hand and the three leave together, as Jonah smiles when the elevator doors close.
Cast
Production
Origins and development
In 1989, Sleepless in Seattle was conceived by Jeff Arch, a struggling writer and former cinematographer, whose work as a writer had experienced little to no success at the time. Sleepless in Seattle was Arch's first script to be optioned as a film. The story began as a play about two people falling in love over the telephone without meeting in person. Arch decided that, unlike typical romance plots in which the main characters bicker for most of the film after they "meet cute", his couple would not meet until the end of the film, feeling unprecedented confidence that Sleepless in Seattle would be successful as long as he "got these people to the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day". The writer drew inspiration from several sources, including the French film And Now My Love, a seminar by motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and a Washington Post article he had read about women hiring private investigators to uncover information about their romantic partners.Arch faced criticism about the unlikelihood of the film being made due to the lack of scenes shared by its lead couple. He pitched the film to at least six studios and executives, all of whom rejected it for similar reasons. Desperate, Arch's agent Dave Warden submitted the spec script to producer Gary Foster in 1990. Although Foster typically discards new scripts that fail to captivate him within its first 25 pages, he claims to have read past the 25th page of Arch's script unnoticed, only to find he was crying by the last page. Immediately noticing the script's potential, Foster submitted the script to TriStar Pictures executive Richard Fischoff, whose studio had produced all of his previous films. At first, Fischoff's staff screened the script and passed on it. After pleading from Foster, Fischoff eventually relented and read the script, optioning it to TriStar a few days later.
Eventually TriStar chairman Mike Medavoy heavily promoted the film, and Foster began interviewing potential directors shortly after. Nick Castle had been slated to write and direct Hook, a big-budget adaptation of Peter Pan also for TriStar, but he was eventually removed from the film in favor of Steven Spielberg. The studio reassigned Castle to Sleepless in Seattle as a consolation. Garry Marshall had also been considered to direct. While Foster retained sole producer credit, the film was co-executive produced by Lynda Obst and Patrick Crowley. Foster struggled to get the film made over the following two years. After finally agreeing to maintain the idea of keeping the couple separated, TriStar insisted that the "wistful" script be re-written to make the film and each character edgier and quirkier, particularly Sam and Annie. Foster found the script lacked the sophistication and complexity required to elevate an emotional, sentimental story beyond merely treacle. Foster reluctantly informed Arch they were interested in changing writers in order to "sharpen" his script. Although Arch submitted a re-write himself, he soon found he was essentially "kicked off my own movie", and replaced by a writer with whose work he was not pleased, such as relocating the entire film to New York without including the Empire State Building. Arch begged Foster and director Nick Castle to hire a better writer "who's going to take this way up to the next level".
Writing
Several writers and directors were involved with Sleepless in Seattle at various stages of development, with Arch's script being re-written approximately five times. Arch's original concept was more akin to a romantic drama than a romantic comedy. Despite already featuring several of the film's major elements, such as a central father-son relationship and references to the romance film An Affair to Remember, Arch admitted his script was not funny enough. Dramatist Larry Atlas attempted some revisions, most of which were discarded. Foster interviewed at least 10 potential writers before hiring David S. Ward to re-write Arch's script. Among the most significant changes, Ward decided to have Jonah call the radio station on Sam's behalf. Insisting that no self-respecting man would deliberately call a radio show to share his emotional grievances, Ward suggested that Sam be coerced by Jonah into revealing how he feels about his late wife to several single women throughout the country, including Annie. Arch credits Ward with convincing the studio to not give up on the film, believing the latter's Academy Award for writing The Sting helped them take him seriously as a filmmaker. However, the studio constantly pushed for an edgier and quirkier film. Despite acknowledging Ward's work as "a big step forward for the script", Foster was not entirely satisfied with the revisions and forwarded them to writer Nora Ephron, having been a fan of her work on When Harry Met Sally.... Ephron had been Foster's first choice, hoping she could offer the script "a cynical layer to justify the organic sweetness", but she was unavailable when first approached to re-write.At least four writers attempted to rework Sleepless in Seattle before Ephron was recruited to "polish" the fifth and final draft. Ephron had been searching for script doctoring jobs shortly after her directorial debut This Is My Life proved unprofitable at the box office. Admitting that she never would have conceived the film herself, Ephron initially accepted Sleepless in Seattle as a fun, easy writing project from which she could quickly earn money. Although she found Arch's version simple and unfunny, Ephron particularly liked his romantic ending involving the Empire State Building, and was interested in several ideas discussed in Ward's second draft, particularly how movies affect people's perception about romance. Ephron assured Foster that she could re-write the script within three weeks, adapting it into a funnier version of itself without entirely making it a comedy. She specifically improved Annie and Jonah's roles. In an early draft, the character of Annie was in the midst of ending an unhappy relationship; Ephron wrote this out of the film because she found Annie's original backstory inconsequential in comparison to Sam's loss of his wife. Annie was also relocated from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, Maryland, as the character had originally been conceived as a Lancaster-based reporter. Foster credits Ephron with contributing most of the film's dialogue, while de-emphasizing much of Arch's sentimentality. While crediting Ephron with providing her trademark wit and snark the studio felt the original script lacked, Arch does not think all of Ephron's ideas particularly elevated the film. Describing themselves as quite different as writers, Arch likened their working relationship to "a parent and a step-parent of the same kid". However, they shared a strong love for classic films, with Ephron admitting she herself once considered An Affair to Remember to be "the greatest movie I'd ever seen". Ephron said the final film turned out funnier than she had imagined.
Castle left the project over disagreements with Ephron's edgier, less sentimental script, accusing her of stripping the film of emotion. Ephron claims virtually everyone liked the final script she submitted, apart from Castle. Impressed by Ephron's swiftness and dedication, Foster invited her to direct. Although Ephron protested the film was not quite ready to be directed, feeling it warranted at least one more rewrite, she eventually accepted and recruited her sister Delia to help improve several scenes. One such moment was the final scene in which Annie meets Sam and Jonah atop the Empire State building; Delia suggested that the father and son should be returning to the observation deck just as Annie is readying to leave, instead of having already exited the building. Despite serving as an associate producer alongside Arch, Delia remains uncredited for her script contributions, although a script dated March 10, 1992, is credited to Arch with re-writes by Nora and Delia Ephron. Ephron considers Sleepless in Seattle a "secret present" to their late parents, who were also screenwriters, as well as classic Hollywood movies. As "a movie about love that was also about movies about love", Ephron aimed to direct a "timeless" film audiences could watch for several years, without it feeling like it was made in 1993.
Ephron was also determined to give each character a "moment", such as when the minor mailman character has an inconsequential conversation about hiccups with Sam's son Jonah. At one point, the script mentioned that Sam and Annie had once both lived in Chicago at the same time, but this was edited out of the final film. Sleepless in Seattle became Ephron's second directorial effort. Premiere reported that, once Ephron became involved, the film "changed... from a script that almost everyone had turned down into one that almost everyone wanted to be involved with". Although Arch did not necessarily agree that Ephron saved the film, he understood that "sometimes, you're not the star but that if you keep doing your job right, you will be the star", and maintains that several scenes ultimately remained almost exactly how he had envisioned them in his first draft, despite several re-writes.